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Blue Marble Review

Literary Journal for Young Writers

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In the Trees

By Hannah Kleinkramer

In the cara cara trees
I walk down the row and stomp
on oranges rotting in the dirt;
the guts slide across the treads of my Timberlands.

I pick a shiner, twist it off the stem,
dig my fingernails into its peel,
tear off the rind and pith
and take a bite.

I look down and see the miles of tubing
and remember that day…

My dad and I were checking the irrigation;
We followed tubing up the rows
in between the trunks and weeds.

I knelt to fix an emitter.
My dad turned to me and said,
“I got the results back from my biopsy;
It came back positive.”

I nod my head, and we continue checking sprinklers.
I manage to focus by counting trees
And finishing off the row…

I take another bite of the cara cara
And look to the dirt.
There’s another orange in the path of my boots
and I stomp down.

 

Hannah Kleinkramer is twenty years old and is an English major currently attending Reedley Community College in California. She enjoys writing poetry and short fiction stories.

Filed Under: Poetry Tagged With: Issue 22

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